I am planning my 4th all grain brew shortly (only 20 pint batches at present to gain experience), I intend to split and reuse the Whitelabs WLP002 yeast.
With the set up and current practice I have a present, (which is brewing in the garage), I can only brew once per month, (2/3 weeks fermenting, and another week in the STC controlled fridge to secondary ferment the bottles) there are a number of questions I have, and would like to draw on the forum members best practise on this subject.
After the first couple of brews using dried yeast, I naively thought that you could simply open the Whitelabs phial and split the yeast into 3 or 4 for example, and use these for further brews down the line. When I opened the yeast phial it went crazy, I then panicked and the whole lot went into my 20 pint batch. Now after reading a bit on this subject I may have overpitched, but the beer came out fine, and tasted a lot better than the dried yeast hence my desire to use the liquid yeasts for all future ales, and if I can reduce my costs on yeast it will be a bonus.
From my understanding, there are at least a couple of ways to do this, depending on your inclination, frequency of brewdays etc, etc. Please correct me if I am wrong !
First you can try to actually split the phial into a number of other phials, or make a starter up from the original and split this, or to go the whole hog, start making your own yeast slants.
Q1. From what I have said in terms of brewing frequency and current volumes, would it be better to try to split the yeast a number of ways from the original phial. If so what would be the optimum number, the viability of this yeast and shelf life?
Q2. On the other hand, would the method of creating a starter from the original, then pitching half onto the current brew and splitting the remainder into phials be better for me? Again, what would be the optimum numbers of splits, shelf life and viability of the original yeast for my current circumstances?
Q3. Would it be advisable to start again with a new Whitelabs yeasts after my split yeasts have been used to avoid mutation?, or can you grow on your splits without this danger?
Q4. I would like to try different yeasts in the future, and increase my brew volume, when I feel that I am getting there, so would creating my own slants be an alternative?
Q5. I already have a 500mL conical glass vessel for a starter, is this big enough for a standard ale?
Q6. What kit would I need, ie phials etc,etc for starting to harvest and reuse yeasts?
Sorry for the long post, I am trying to achieve best practice on this tricky subject.
Oh, and last of all, how do the forum members who bottle their beer manage to secondary ferment their ales if they have one fridge like myself, and wish to brew more frequently than once a month?
Many thanks,
WM7793
With the set up and current practice I have a present, (which is brewing in the garage), I can only brew once per month, (2/3 weeks fermenting, and another week in the STC controlled fridge to secondary ferment the bottles) there are a number of questions I have, and would like to draw on the forum members best practise on this subject.
After the first couple of brews using dried yeast, I naively thought that you could simply open the Whitelabs phial and split the yeast into 3 or 4 for example, and use these for further brews down the line. When I opened the yeast phial it went crazy, I then panicked and the whole lot went into my 20 pint batch. Now after reading a bit on this subject I may have overpitched, but the beer came out fine, and tasted a lot better than the dried yeast hence my desire to use the liquid yeasts for all future ales, and if I can reduce my costs on yeast it will be a bonus.
From my understanding, there are at least a couple of ways to do this, depending on your inclination, frequency of brewdays etc, etc. Please correct me if I am wrong !
First you can try to actually split the phial into a number of other phials, or make a starter up from the original and split this, or to go the whole hog, start making your own yeast slants.
Q1. From what I have said in terms of brewing frequency and current volumes, would it be better to try to split the yeast a number of ways from the original phial. If so what would be the optimum number, the viability of this yeast and shelf life?
Q2. On the other hand, would the method of creating a starter from the original, then pitching half onto the current brew and splitting the remainder into phials be better for me? Again, what would be the optimum numbers of splits, shelf life and viability of the original yeast for my current circumstances?
Q3. Would it be advisable to start again with a new Whitelabs yeasts after my split yeasts have been used to avoid mutation?, or can you grow on your splits without this danger?
Q4. I would like to try different yeasts in the future, and increase my brew volume, when I feel that I am getting there, so would creating my own slants be an alternative?
Q5. I already have a 500mL conical glass vessel for a starter, is this big enough for a standard ale?
Q6. What kit would I need, ie phials etc,etc for starting to harvest and reuse yeasts?
Sorry for the long post, I am trying to achieve best practice on this tricky subject.
Oh, and last of all, how do the forum members who bottle their beer manage to secondary ferment their ales if they have one fridge like myself, and wish to brew more frequently than once a month?
Many thanks,
WM7793
